You don't have the same caliber of players in the SEC that you had in the 1980s and 90s," long-time SEC TV analyst Joe Dean Jr. said.

Confession time.

The last few seasons, the overwhelming majority
of SEC men's basketball games I've covered have been so excruciatingly ordinary
that during timeouts I sometimes watch YouTube clips on my cell phone of
"Pistol Pete" Maravich.

Five minutes of college basketball's all-time
scoring leader torching defenses with rainbow jumpers, double-clutch drives and
an assortment of wicked, mind-blowing passes is sweet relief from watching
today's anemic shooting collection of paint-chippin' rim clankers that huff and
puff to reach 50 points.

Besides that, I occasionally daydream recalling how fun the SEC had been
when it had colorful coaches with actual personalities, when it possessed a roll
call of future NBA Hall of Famers and all-stars.

Between 1993 and 1998, the SEC had eight teams in
the Final Four including two each in 1994 and 1996. It advanced a team to the
championship game for five straight years, winning titles in 1994 (Arkansas) and 1996, '98 (Kentucky).

The SEC had a collection of men's hoops teams so
potent that the league's football programs even bragged about them.

That success seems eons ago.

While it's true the SEC has won three NCAA
basketball championships in the last eight years, the conference from top to
bottom has mostly been an excuse to kill time until the start of spring
football.

Not only has the league qualified just four or
fewer teams for the NCAA Tournament four of the last five years, 13 of those 20
teams were eliminated the first weekend.

It would be convenient to say the SEC's hoops
death spiral is cyclical, even blame it on coaching turnover with new coaches
at 11 of 14 league schools in the last five seasons.

But when you consider Tubby Smith won an NCAA title
in 1998 in his first year as Kentucky's coach and Florida's Billy Donovan had
the Gators in the national championship game in his fourth season in 2000, the
new hire argument is weak.

Last season, the SEC placed just three teams in
the NCAA tourney, including an Ole Miss team that wouldn't have made the field
had the Rebels not earned an automatic NCAA bid by winning the SEC tournament
for the first time since 1981.

"That's substandard and not acceptable,"
SEC commissioner Mike Slive said not mincing words.

Three years ago, Slive, a former chairman and
member of the NCAA Tournament selection committee, told SEC coaches to play
stronger non-conference schedules if they wished to earn the coveted tourney
bids.

Most of those coaches didn't follow Slive's instructions,
so he finally took action this past summer.

First, he persuaded SEC athletic directors to
pass a measure effective for the 2014-15 season requiring league coaches to submit
their non-conference schedules for review and approval by the league.

Then, he hired Greg Shaheen, who ran the NCAA
men's tourney for 12 years, as a consultant to review such schedules.

Finally in July, Slive named Mark Whitworth, a
25-year employee of the SEC office in various capacities, as associate
commissioner for men's basketball.

"We'd always staffed men's basketball with a team
approach," Whitworth said. "But the Commissioner said, 'I've changed my
thinking. I want someone that wakes up in the morning, comes to this office and
thinks every day of the year what we can do to enhance men's basketball.' "

Whitworth, a native of Louisville where in the
Bluegrass State playing basketball daily after school is law, has thrown
himself into his new position.

By early December, he had visited every SEC
campus and met with each coach.

"It was good to walk through their door,"
Whitworth said, "and say, 'I've got all the time you want. I'll tell you what I
think, you say what you've got to say and tell me how I can help you.' "

On the surface, a simple visit by someone from
the conference office doesn't seem like much. But to SEC basketball coaches who
for years have yearned for one central league contact point when problems,
concerns and questions arise, having Whitworth on speed dial is major progress.

"Mark will do a tremendous job," LSU coach Johnny
Jones said. "We're glad Commissioner Slive decided to put someone in charge of
basketball that the coaches can reach out to, but at the same time having
someone committed to growing the league front and center."

In his first meeting with the league coaches,
Whitworth stated his job description clearly.

"My job is to think strategically in a way that
positions our league to be interesting, compelling and
draws top players to play for our programs," Whitworth said.

Whitworth isn't looking for gimmicky fixes. He's
seeking solid ideas on how to make SEC basketball more attractive, such as
forming a committee of recent former players around the league to get their
input.

He's all ears, and needs to be. Because the
league isn't what it used to be, starting with talent level.

Besides Kentucky and Florida (and Tennessee at
times), most SEC schools in the last decade haven't steadily signed recruits
rated in the top 150 nationally.

"You don't have the same caliber of players
in the SEC that you had in the 1980s and 90s," long-time SEC TV analyst Joe
Dean Jr. said. "After Rick Pitino and Nolan Richardson no longer coached
Kentucky and Arkansas in the late '90s and early into the next decade, the talent
in the league dropped off.

"You have to think what you can do to attract the
best players to your programs. Most schools already have the great facilities,
so the second thing is to play a national schedule."

That's where the SEC has failed miserably in
recent years. It hasn't changed this season with SEC teams scheduling 63.4
percent of their non-conference games (111-of-175) against opponents that have
RPIs (ratings percentage index) of 100 or worse.

The league is 3-17 against teams rated with RPIs
between 1 and 25.

Whatever happened to the days of LSU scheduling
Loyola Marymount or Georgetown? Or Tennessee playing at Texas, at USC or vs.
Gonzaga in Seattle? Or any other SEC school consistently stepping outside of
its non-conference scheduling comfort zone?

"When I first got in the league (in 1996-97),
everybody scheduled in a way that your team could play through mistakes in
non-conference," Florida's Donovan said. "You realized you would be evaluated
for what you did in your league.

"It used to be in any power conference that if
you finished with a .500 or better record in league play, that was an automatic
guarantee to get to the NCAA Tournament.

"But times have changed. There's more of a focus
(from the tournament selection committee) on your whole body of work. They look
at who've you played in non-conference. They look at who've you played on the
road."

"So many games are on TV that everybody can see
that teams not from major conferences like Virginia Commonwealth, Butler and
Gonzaga are pretty good," Kennedy said. "More of those teams get exposure that
they didn't have, and everyone can see there's quality teams on the mid-major
level that deserve NCAA Tournament consideration. That's why going .500 in
league play no longer makes you a lock for the NCAA tourney."

Dean believes most SEC programs have been
reluctant to adjust, because coaches schedule to protect job security.

"Coaches run scared a bit of their jobs," Dean
said. "If you look at all the schedules, they play too many cupcakes.

"You've got to have coaches with courage who
aren't afraid of losing their jobs and schedule as strong as they can to get on
the map."

Former Alabama and Vanderbilt coach C.M Newton, a
basketball consultant to the SEC office, agrees with Dean.

"When I coached Vanderbilt, we played North
Carolina, Indiana and Notre Dame to name a few," Newton said. "But I also had
an athletic director (Roy Kramer) who had been a (football) coach and
understood scheduling, so I knew he wouldn't fire me if I lost some of those
games. It's not that way anymore."

Dean points out former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl as
the most recent SEC floor boss who fast-forwarded the growth of his program through
aggressive scheduling.

"Bruce Pearl's philosophy was he would play
anybody anywhere if they put his team on one of the national networks," Dean
said. "He'd play Kansas at Kansas, Memphis at Memphis, play in the best holiday
tournaments.

"He'd sell that in recruiting and it helped him
sign top-caliber players. He not only got Tennessee ranked No. 1 for a short
period, but he consistently got his team to the NCAA Tournament.

"There needs to be more coaches like Bruce Pearl
who are willing to step out and take chances to create an aura that will help
them attract better players."

After a few years of cajoling his coaches to play
stronger non-conference schedules, Slive drew the line. SEC office
approval of all member schedules starting next season is a bold, but necessary move.

"The poet John Donne said, 'No man is an island',"
Slive said. "In college basketball scheduling, no team is an island. What every
team does schedule-wise impacts everyone else.

"In your RPI, 25 percent of it is based on a
team's own scheduling, 50 percent is based upon a team's opponent's schedule
and 25 percent is based upon a team's opponent's opponent schedule.

"So since 75 percent is based on other than what
you do, if you are thoughtful in you who play and understand their program and
who they play, you make an informed scheduling decision. Then, you've got a
chance."

Kentucky coach John Calipari, whose team won the
2012 national title, said there's no reason why the SEC shouldn't place a
minimum of five teams each year in the NCAA tourney.

"We can all be about our own programs and all go
down one by one, or we can be about each other," Calipari said. "Bury the jealousy
and let's go. All of our schools are well invested in our programs. We have a
great vision we want to reach, and we need to come together to do it."

But there's also one last detail, according
Arkansas third-year coach Mike Anderson that will get SEC basketball moving
onward and upward again.

"You can strengthen the schedule all you want,
but you've got to win games," said Anderson, who has a Hogs' career record of
2-19 on an opponent's home court. "And once you get to the NCAA Tournament,
you've got to win there.

"There are good players everywhere, but the
bottom line is you've got to win."

Meanwhile, come over here and sit next to me. Let
me show you this wrap-around fastbreak pass Pistol Pete throws that is so
sleight-of-hand that the defender falls on his rear . . . just awesome.